North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS) is a hospital system with locations in Amory, Eupora, Luka, Pontotoc, and Westpoint, Mississippi, as well as a location in Hamilton, Alabama. They have over 90 primary and specialty clinics alongside nursing homes and telehealth services and provide a wide range of services, from addiction treatment to general surgery and specialty clinics for every health condition.
With so much to offer, NMHS wanted to ensure the community kept them in mind whenever they experienced a health concern or wanted to learn more about healthy living. NMHS turned to Paubox to find the best way to keep the community informed while remaining HIPAA compliant.
We sat down with Robin McKinney, NMHS’ Digital Marketing Strategist, to learn how she uses Paubox Marketing.
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Company snapshot |
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Industry |
Family and specialty care |
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Use case |
Send personalized HIPAA compliant newsletters using Paubox Marketing |
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The Challenge
NMHS is all about connecting with the community, but only recently began working digitally to keep patients and community members informed about healthcare and the practice. Previously, they only sent messages related to appointments and operational status.
When McKinney joined the organization, she knew it would be up to her to start engaging individuals through an email strategy.
McKinney said that email would be an important tool for NMHS, “We have social media…but people have to come to you on social media to see, and you’re at the whim of the algorithm...And of course, our website has tons of information, but again, people have to come to it.”
Outside of its social media and website, NMHS also had a few email communication channels, including its wellness center and affiliated physicians, but McKinney wanted to help streamline the process.
Email marketing is strategic and powerful because it goes straight to the individuals who have signed up, “They don’t have to come find it. So it’s just in their inbox ready for whenever they’re ready to open it and read it.”
Because Paubox Marketing is HIPAA compliant, NMHS can segment their audience based on factors of their choosing, such as gender, parental status, location, or health condition, ensuring individuals only receive information relevant to them.
McKinney wanted to provide information that could be helpful to the community, “We’ve really tried to incorporate approachable health education as a big part of our marketing and messaging…We wanted to have a touch point that we’re not trying to get them to do anything. We’re not telling them about an appointment or something that they need. We just want to give them education on healthier living. It’s simple things like diet, exercise, the types of screens people should get, and what to look out for.”
Even though NMHS knew an email marketing strategy was important, security was their top priority. “We wanted to be sure whatever we used was going to be safe, that we weren’t going to be exposing people’s PHI. And so, we knew going off the bat that a Constant Contact or MailChimp was not going to be the solution for us.”
When it comes to HIPAA compliant email marketing, it can be difficult for healthcare organizations. Personalized emails have to be encrypted to meet HIPAA regulations, but many other email companies require recipients to open new browser windows or set up accounts, reducing the likelihood of emails being read.
McKinney wanted something that could be personalized, secure, and easy for recipients to open. Soon after, the team discovered Paubox.
Read more: HIPAA compliant email marketing: What you need to know
The Solution
McKinney and her team wanted to explore their options for the right email marketing service. The team completed some initial research and inquired with NMHS’ director of cybersecurity. With cyberattacks on the rise, McKinney wanted a secure, reliable system.
Right away their director recommended Paubox, which had also surfaced as a solution when McKinney did her research online. McKinney also consulted with the agency that was helping NMHS build and update their website. They recommended Paubox, too.
With several recommendations, Paubox was a top contender, but NMHS still wanted to complete their due diligence. McKinney’s team looked into other service providers, but none were quite what the team wanted. “We decided to look into Paubox more and it checked all of our boxes as far as feeling confident about keeping people’s information secure and the ease of using it,” McKinney said.
They also wanted to ensure the system was intuitive enough that multiple team members could send emails. Considering that NMHS is a massive hospital system, McKinney worried that there would be a steep learning curve if anyone had to step in. “We just wanted to make it was something that anyone could jump in and use, so it wouldn’t be solely up to one person.”
As a strategist, McKinney wanted a robust analytics system to determine the most effective emails and tweak her strategy.
The Results
According to McKinney, the results were immediately positive. NMHS’ very first newsletter featured a story about a patient receiving a procedure that had just become available in the United States. NMHS was one of the few hospitals beginning to practice it, and McKinney knew that sharing that information could help others in the community. “We had so many people submit an appointment request based on that,” McKinney said. Others replied directly to the email asking for more information.
It was a huge success, and McKinney believes their newsletters will keep improving.
She shared that their last newsletter went out to approximately 86,700 individuals. More than half opened the email. “It was really good to see,” McKinney said.
McKinney also works on segmentation, helping the right people get emails they may be interested in. Currently, she sends approximately five different newsletters to various segments based on population data or expressed interest. Her team plans to start incorporating Paubox Email API to help pool and sort data. Once it´s rolled out, new subscribers can be immediately pulled into the system.
As McKinney has grown more comfortable with the platform, she’s happy to see new features frequently added based on feedback. Paubox marketing is always looking to improve our systems and support.
Ready to try HIPAA compliant email marketing? Start for free today.
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